Two important factors in determining when an elderly or physically disabled person requires institutional care is when they (1) lack the mental facilities to take care of themselves and/or (2) lack the physical functionality to move about their living environments on their own. In many circumstances, many people who lack the physical function for full mobility about their living environment have sharp mental awareness. These mentally competent persons often resist being placed into a full-time care facility or to have home-aids who have to be present twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure that the person can access all necessary facilities in their living environment. These mentally competent persons only need a reliable and safe way for them to move about their living environment in order to live independently. There are a few track-based mobility systems that can be installed in residential or institutional applications, but these track-based systems limit the access points, positioning and travel paths which a person can traverse while supported by the track-based mobility system. Thus, there is a need in the art for a conveyance system which facilitates movement of a person receiving assistance throughout substantially the entire living environment.
Track-based overhead conveyance systems are also utilized in hospital, institutional, commercial, and industrial environments to provide lifting and/or conveyance assistance for human patients or other articles. Nurses often implement such track-guided hoist or conveyance systems to assist with removing patients from a bed to go to a bathroom. Track-based overhead conveyance systems are also used as aids in physical therapy to carry a certain percentage of the patient's overall body weight for walking while recovering from an injury. Again, the track-based overhead conveyance systems limit the direction of travel and the locations which are accessible by a patient because the person or item being conveyed cannot travel to or access locations where there is no track present on the ceiling or connected to the support structure. Thus, there is a need in the art for a conveyance system which facilitates movement of a person or other item throughout substantially the entirety of the desired spatial environment.
It is recognized that the above-identified shortcomings in patient or person track-based overhead conveyance systems, including but not limited to limited travel paths, limited access to areas of a living environment, the inability for multiple objects to be supported and move at the same time, may also be experienced in countless numbers of other applications. Such applications which use track-based conveyance systems may include industrial uses, manufacturing, auto service and repair, shipping and logistics, interior design, storage, warehousing, laboratory, brewing, photography, video and stage production, and many other applications. As such, there is a broad need for a conveyance system which facilitates movement and/or positioning of any item throughout substantially the entirety of the desired spatial environment.